Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi

Ordered this and Sosonko's companion volume about David Bronstein. Returned them both within the hour. Very small, almost pocket-sized books, and much thinner than I expected.If they were reprinted in standard sized hard or softcover, I might take another look - but not before. Even then, the volume of content was extremely disappointing.

My husband loved this book

I enjoy reading books of Genna Sosonko.

"The "Evil-Doer", as the Soviet chess players now called Korchnoi, had turned chess into a matter of state urgency. The Soviet leadership received real time accounts of the world title matches as though they were dispatches from the front in time of war."It is difficult for anyone not living when Viltor Korchnoi defected to the West to understand what his leaving the "Mother country" meant to the Chess world at that time."...in taking a one-man stance against the hulking Soviet monster, he gained the entire world's attention and imprinted his name in the history of the game forever. Just as a poet in Russia was much more than a writer, a grandmaster in the Soviet Union was much more than a chess player.""Chess's next wave of popularity was exclusively down to Viktor Korchnoi. He represented quite a melting pot: the conflict between two opposing systems, the international tension caused by that very Cold War, and his personal drama, with the Soviet authorities refusing to allow his family to leave for the West. News of this standoff made chess front-page news again, and it was even the subject of the madly popular musical <em>Chess</em>, which ran for years in London and New York."Thus the stage is set by the author, GM Genna Sosonko in his magnificent new book, "Evil-Doer: Half a Century with Viktor Korchnoi.""Almost half a century later, it is not easy to appreciate what such a decision by Korchnoi meant for a Soviet citizen, and how incredibly hard it was to make that final leap to freedom."Sosonko emigrated from the Soviet Union before Korchnoi, but he left after receiving permission from the monolithic State; Korchnoi defected, thus earning the opprobrium and enmity of not only the Soviet authorities, but also of the citizens of Russia. Korchnoi was considered a renegade, and traitor.The following paragraphs explains the author's aim in writing the book:"There was a time when Sigmund Freud dissuaded the writer Stephan Zweig from attempting to compile the former's biography: "Whoever becomes a biographer forces himself to tell lies, conceal facts, commit fraud, embellish the truth and even mask their lack of understanding - it's impossible to achieve the truth in a biography, and even if it were possible, that truth would be useless and you could do nothing with it.""I have to agree with the father of psychoanalysis and I have not attempted to write Korchnoi's biography as such. Rather, this is a collection of memories, or to be more precise still: a collection of explanatory notes and interpretations of incomprehensible or misunderstood events from the complex life of a man whom I knew for nearly half a century, and alongside whom I spent in total many months - indeed years. I want to believe that these recollections will not only uncover the motives behind his controversial actions, but will also shed light on his approach to the game, his personality and behavior in everyday life. In any event, a portrayal of Korchnoi must obviously highlight the most important feature of his life - his dedication to chess - which grew into an obsession.""When he turned seventy, he asked me to write the foreword to his collected games. Naturally, I hardly imbued my text written for his big occasion with "plain speaking.""Yet, in the book you are now holding, I have attempted to do just that: in my reflections on this great player, I wanted to display him, as the English say, warts and all."The author has achieved his goal. It must have been painful at times to write so openly and honestly about someone with whom one spent so much time, and about someone for whom he obviously had so much affection, but Sosonko has done a masterful job in this outstanding work of art. I lived during the era of which the author writes, but did not play Chess seriously until 1970. Therefore I learned much from the early, pre-1970, period of Viktor the Terrible. Even though I have read extensively about the Chess world much of what I read shed light on some of the dark spots.This book is Genna Sosonko's piece de resistance. Simply put, this outstanding book is cheap at twice the price.

As with most Sosonko books, this is an engaging read. But Sosonko doesn't quite get under the skin of his subject as he did with his Bronstein profile. More memorable for me was Korchnoi's own account of his life: 'Chess is My Life'.

All serious students of the game have played through lots of Korchnoi games over the years so Sosonko does not need to include any games in this book, there are enough books out there that cover Korchnoi's career sufficiently.What we do need and Genna Sosonko provides is a look at the man away from the chessboard. What was he like? Was he always argumentative? Why was he the way he was?Sosonko provides us with a rich personal look at Viktor Korchnoi, warts and all. The negative aspects of his personality are covered.His whole life is covered and we get to hear some excellent stories from his years with Sosonko that aren't covered anywhere else.As always with the author, he provides a good reading experience filled with anecdotes of a time gone by.

Suscribo la reseña que ha hecho Zenon Franco de este libro.A destacar las fotografías que incluye (una de ellas de Korchnoi disfrutando en una discoteca) y las conversaciones privadas del autor, Sosonko, con el biografiado.Ameno e interesante.